Tentative date picked for Taliban-Kabul talks

Quadrilateral bloc will meet again on February 23 in Kabul

ISLAMABAD:

Top officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan, the United States and China met on Saturday to continue work on a roadmap for peace talks with Taliban who have stepped up their violent campaign against the administration of President Ashraf Ghani.

The Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) discussed a tentative date – possibly by February-end – for a direct meeting between Afghan officials and the insurgents. The four-nation bloc will meet again on February 23 in Kabul.

Building on the progress made in the last two sessions, the quadrilateral group explored ways for holding early, direct talks for restoring peace in the war-torn country. It also urged all Taliban groups to join peace talks while stressing the outcome of the reconciliation process should result in an end to violence, said a joint statement issued after the meeting.



A security official described the third round of talks as a ‘success of Pakistan’s stance’ on joint efforts to persuade Taliban groups for talks. “We are doing everything with utmost sincerity to restore durable peace in the neighbouring country,” he added.

The group also discussed modalities to hold talks with Taliban factions and also adopted a roadmap stipulating the stages and steps for the process, the joint statement read.

‘Useless’ process

While the Taliban declined to officially comment on the quadrilateral meeting, insiders termed the process ‘useless’.

Taliban sources told The Express Tribune that such meetings would not produce any results. “The Americans want to divert the attention of the people from their invasion through such meetings and to show they are no more involved in war,” a Taliban leader said. “The only solution to the problem is to end the invasion of Afghanistan. There is no other way to resolve the problem.”

Taliban’s political negotiators had spelled out some preconditions for joining the quadrilateral talks that included opening their political office in Qatar, removal of travel sanctions and release of prisoners. The Taliban also want to talk to the US first to discuss the withdrawal of foreign forces.



Collective efforts

The third round of QCG talks was hosted by Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry. Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson and China’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan Deng Xijun led their respective sides at the talks.

Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz said as many Taliban groups as possible must be persuaded to join any upcoming peace discussions with the Afghan government.

“We believe our collective efforts, including through supportive CBMs (confidence building measures), at this stage have to be aimed at persuading the maximum number of Taliban groups to join the peace talks,” he said during his opening statement. “In our view, a clear, well-defined and actionable roadmap for the peace process between the Afghan government and Taliban groups is important.”

Commenting on Pakistan’s stance on eliminating terrorism, Aziz said Islamabad shared Afghanistan’s concerns that increasing violence was a key challenge and its reduction should be an important objective of the talks.

“We require collective efforts from all QCG countries at this stage to persuade the maximum number of Taliban groups to join the talks,” he said. “This will not only be beneficial in terms of lasting peace and stability, but will also shrink space for the irreconcilable militants.”

Aziz also reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to “continued efforts” to facilitate lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2016.